Science in Medieval Russia: Some Reflections on a Recent Book

Vucinich A. , Science in Russian culture, A history to 1860 (London, 1965).

Granstrem E. E. , “O proiskhozhdenii glagolicheskoǐ azbuki”, Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoǐ literatury (Akademiya nauk SSSR, Institut russkoǐ literatury, xi (1955).

Vaillant A. , Le Livre des Secrets d'Hénoch (Paris, 1952). A critical edition of the Slavonic text with a French translation and historical and linguistic notes. An English translation by W. R. Morfill which appeared in Charles R. H. Morfill W. R. , The Book of the secrets of Enoch (Oxford, 1896), contains a number of obscurities of translation, in particular of the astronomical passages.

The following are of some interest: Maunder , “The date and place of writing of the Slavonic Enoch”, The observatory, no. xii (1918) 309–16, and Fotheringham J. K. , “The easter calendar and the Slavonic Enoch”, Journal of theological studies, xxiii, no. 89 (October 1921) 49–56.

Sherburne Edward , The Sphere of Marcus Manilius, made on English poem: With annotations and an astronomical appendix (London, 1675). Appendix, p. 6: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam wrote of Astronomy, and particularly of the Number and Names of the Stars and their secret Vertues; the Book reported to be yet extant in the Territories of the Queen of Sheba, as Vossius De Scientiis Mathemat. affirms”.

There are two versions of the Izbornik: The first, written in 1073, was published in a facsimile edition by the Obshchestvo lyubiteleǐ drevneǐ pis'mennosti (St Petersburg, 1880), and the second, written in 1076, is published in Golyshenko V. S. , Izbornik 1076 (Moscow, 1965).

Published in an edition by Popov A. (Moscow, 1878).

An edition by Aitzetmüller R. , Das Hexaemeron des Exarchen Johannes (Graz, 1958). An easily accessible article on John the Exarch is G. Iljinskij, “Jean l'Exarque: à propos du livre de Kalajdovic”, Revenue des études slaves, iv (1924) 199–207.

McCrindle J. W. , The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian monk (London, 1897; Hakluyt Society 98): A translation with notes of the Greek text. For a detailed examination see Wolska Wanda , La topographie chrétienne de Cosmas Indikopleustès (Paris, 1962).

A facsimile edition was published in St Petersburg in 1892.

See I storiko-matematicheskiye issledovaniya, no. 6 (Moscow, 1953) 174–95.

On the Russian Physiologus see Karneev A. , Materialy i zametki po literaturnoǐ istorii Fiziologa (St Petersburg, 1890). A considerable literature exists on the Greek and West European versions of the Physiologus.

The various Russian chronicles are published in a series Polnoye sobraniye russkikh letopiseǐ (St Petersburg, 1841–). For an English translation of one chronicle see Cross S. H. Sherbowitz-Wetzor O. P. , The Russian Primary Chronicle—Laurentian text (Cambridge, Mass., 1953).

One should not, however, overstress the scientific nature of such observations—almost every comet is described as being like a spear, a standard simile apparently taken from the early Slavonic translation of Josephus' History of the Judaic War.

The entry in the Moscow Chronicle for 1404 describes the clock as having ‘a moon’ and bells struck by automata. It was made by a certain Lazar, a Serbian monk from Mount Athos, who installed the clock in the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin. A sixteenth-century miniature in another chronicle shows the dial, marked with Russian letter-numerals and with ‘a’ (for 1) at the top of the dial.

See Denisoff E. , Maxim le grec et l'Occident (Paris, 1943).

Kazakova N. A. Lur'ye Ya. S. , Antifeodal'niye ereticheskiye dvizheniya na Rusi XIV—nachala XVI veka (Moscow-Leningrad, 1955), and Lur'ye Ya. S. , Ideologicheskaya bor'ba v russkoǐ publitsistike kontza XV—nachala XVI veka (Moscow-Leningrad, 1960).

See Zubov V. P. , ‘Neizvestnyǐ russkiǐ perevod traktata o Sfere Ioanna de Sacrobosco’, Istoriko-astronomicheskiye issledovaniya, no. 8 (1962) 221–39.

Published in part by A. I. Sobolevskiǐ, see below, note 42.

Speransky M. N. , Taǐnaya taǐnykh ili Aristotelevi vrata (Pamyatniki drevneǐ pis'mennosti, clxxi) (St Petersburg, 1908). A rather poor critical edition with commentary. See also Ryan W. F. , “A Russian Version of the Secreta Secretorum in the Bodleian Library”, Oxford Slavonic Papers, xii (1965) 40–48. The Russian text is also mentioned in the major work on the Secreta, Steele R. , Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, fasc. 5 (Oxford, 1920).

See Zubov V. P. , “Vopros o ‘nedelimikh’ i beskonechnom v drevnerusskom literaturnom pamyatnike XV veka”, Istoriko-matematicheskiye issledovaniya, no. 3 (1950) 407–30. Also Parain B. , “La Logique dite des Judaisants”, Revue des études slaves, xix (1939) 315–29.

Nikolai Bulev or Nemchin (i.e. the German) was a German (Nicolaus Bulow) from Lübeck who came to Russia to help draw up new Paschal Tables on the expiry of the seventh millennium (according to Russian chronology) in 1952 and became court physician and astrologer to Vasiliǐ III. See Pabst E. , “Nicolaus Bulow, Astronom, Dolmetsch und Leibarzt beim Grossfürsten in Russland”, Beiträge zur Kunde Esth-, Liv- und Kur-lands, Bd. i (Reval, 1873).

The following anthologies of apocryphal or banned literature contain a number of divinatory texts. Tikhonravov N. , Pamyatniki otrechennoǐ russkoǐ literatury (St Petersburg, 1863), and A. Pypin N. , Lozhniye i otrechenniye knigi russkoǐ stariny (vyp. 3 of Kushelev-Bezborodko G. , Pamyatniki starinnoǐ russkoǐ literatury (St Petersburg, 1863)). The texts of the divinatory Psalter and divination by animal bones were published by M. N. Speranskiǐ, Iz istorii otrechennykh knig, I. Gadaniya po psaltiri, and 3. Lopatochnik (Pamyatniki drevneǐ pis'mennosti, vols. cxxix and cxxxvii) (St Petersburg 1898 and 1900). On the Gromnik see Peretts V. N. , “Kistorii Gromnika”, Zapiski istoriko-filologicheskogo fakulteta Sanktpeterburgskogo universiteta, ix, no. 1 (St Petersburg, 1899).

An English translation of Nikitin's account of his travels is to be found in Major R. H. , India in the fifteenth century (London, 1857; Hakluyt Society 22).

The only other text we have found which mentions, for example, the Reindeer for Ursa Major, apart from certain dictionary references, is a seventeenth-century translation of a ‘Regiment of the Pole Star’ probably of Dutch or German origin, apparently intended for use in the White Sea. It is to be found in a number of ‘Arithmetic books’ of the period and would seem to be almost useless for navigation, especially in the White Sea, since the corrections quoted for finding true North are some two centuries out of date and some of the stars mentioned would not be visible in White Sea latitudes. The Russian text is not published but a discussion of it may be found in Svyatskiǐ D. O. , “Zvezdnoye nebo arkhangelogorodskikh moreplavateleǐ 17 veka”, Izvestiya russkogo obshchestva lyubiteleǐ mirovedeniya, 6, no. 5 (28) (August 1917).

A good example is the Oriental system of twelve animal names representing the zodiac in astrological figures, which we have seen in some seventeenth-century copies of Paschal Tables.

The manuscript is preserved in Vilnius in the library of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian S.S.R. It has not been published nor has it yet been subjected to detailed examination.

Only the geometrical section was translated, and the manuscript, dated 1625, contains no reference to the title or author of the original. It is illustrated with a wood-cut taken from a work of Petrus Apianus and showing various sighting and measuring instruments in use. See Ryan W. F. , “Rathborne's Surveyor (1616/1625): The first Russian Translation from English”, Oxford Slavonic Papers, xi (1964) 1–7.

The Russian texts are not published. See Gorfunkel A. Kh. , “‘Velikaya Nauka Raǐmunda Lyulliya’ i eye chitateli”, XVIII vek, no. 5 (1962) 336–48.

The texts of Michael Scot and Albertus Magnus are normally found together. They have not been published.

The texts have not been individually studied or published. On Freemasonry and the Rosicrucians in Russia, see Pypin A. N. , Russkoye masonstvo (St Petersburg, 1919).

Some medical advice, mostly on the value of herbs and precious stones can be found in texts from the earliest period. The Russian version of the Secreta secretorum contains an extensive medical section, mainly devoted to diet and hygiene. From the fifteenth century a variety of Lechebniki (books of remedies) and Travniki (herbals) can be found. Some are Russian, some translated and some compiled from Russia and foreign sources. The major history is Richter W. , Geschichte der Medicin in Russland (Moscow, 1813–17). A general historical work in English is Gantt W. Horsley , Russian medicine (New York, 1937). It contains a bibliography of works in English on Russian medicine.

The only Russian text before the eighteenth century, as far as we can ascertain, which has any alchemical content in the Taǐnaya taǐnykh (Secreta secretorum) (see note 20) which contains at the end a miscopied and almost incomprehensible passage of Hebrew alchemy, probably added by Harizi to the Hebrew version of the Secreta.

Two articles of interest by B. O. Unbegaun are “Les Slaves et la poudre à cannon”, Revue des études slaves, xl (1964) 207–17, and “Le nom de la boussole en Russe”, Slavistična revija, x (1957) 179–84.

One should mention, however, the brief but invaluable work of Grmek M. D. , Les sciences dans les manuscrits slaves orientaux du moyen age (Paris, 1959), and the more recent bibliography by the same author of scientific manuscripts in Jugoslavia, “Rukovet starih medicinskih, matematičko-fizičkih, astronomskih, kemijskih i prirodoslovnih rukopisa sačuvanih u Hrvatskoj i Sloveniji”, Rasprave i grade za povijest nauka, i (1963) 259–343. Also Sobolevskiǐ A. I. , “Perevodnaya literatura Moskovskoǐ Rusi XIV—XVII vekov”, Sbornik Otdeleniya russkogo yazyka i slovesnosti Imp. Akademii nauk, lxxiv (1903). This contains the first descriptions of many translations of scientific works and it is still a fundamental work, despite inaccuracies later detected.

Two other important works based extensively on unpublished manuscript material are Raǐnov T. I. , Nauka v Rossii XI—XVII vekov (Moscow-Leningrad, 1940), the only full-length work on pre-Petrine science, and Raǐkov B. E. , Ocherki po istorii geliotsentricheskogo mirovozzreniya v Rossii (2nd ed., Moscow-Leningrad, 1947), a good study of Russian medieval astronomy and cosmology.

A certain amount of primary source material is also quoted in the general history of Russian science, Figurovskiǐ N. A. (ed.), Istoriya esteslvoznaniya v Rossii (Moscow, 1957).

The museums of greatest interest are: The Lomonosov Museum in Leningrad, which is a museum not only of Lomonosov himself but of the whole of Russian eighteenth-century science; the Hermitage in Leningrad, which, although perhaps more famous for its superb art collections, has also a large section devoted to Russian culture in the reign of Peter the Great, which includes a fine collection of scientific instruments, both Russian and foreign; the Historical Museum in Moscow has a number of exhibits of interest, both medieval and more modern (for example, some apparatus of Mendeleev); and the Museum of the History of the Microscope, which has grown out of the Sobol' Collection and is probably the largest and most representative collection in the world.

An interesting survey of Anglo-Russian scientific links from the sixteenth century is Radovskiǐ M. V. , Iz istorii anglo-russkikh nauchnykh svyazeǐ (Moscow-Leningrad, 1961).

See Willan T. S. , The Muscovy merchants of 1555 (Manchester, 1953), and The early history of the Russia Company 1553–1603 (Manchester, 1956).

See Lubimenko Inna , “Les étrangers en Russie avant Pierre le Grand”, Revue des études slaves, iv (1924) 84–100, 264–81.

Bodleian MSS Seld. Supra 61, Laud Misc. 47a and 47b.

Ludolf's H. W. Grammatica russica, one of the first Russian grammars, was printed in Oxford in 1696. In 1959 it was reprinted at the Clarendon Press with an introduction by B. O. Unbegaun.

The text is published with notes in Larin B. A. , Slovar' dnevnik Richarda Jamesa (Leningrad, 1959).